Not for the squeemish

I got the stitches out of my hand this past Friday. It was 98% painless, and I got a good report from the doc. The assistant took the stitches out and put steri-strips on...which lasted until I got home. He said ok to get the site wet, but don't soak. Ok, it got wet, not soaked, but it still got water logged and split open. It looks really disgusting.

All in all, this experience from beginning to end was not a pleasant one, but not horrible. Dr. T gave me a hug (and a genuine, caring hug) as I was leaving his office, and just knowing the doc has a heart and is caring, well, that made it all ok. He is a good doc. I would recommend him to anyone. Anytime he knew he hurt me (i.e. as when he injected cortisone a year ago and lidocaine for the surgery) he apologized...said he was sorry he hurt me. Honestly, some docs don't seem to care.


Picture 1. Taken the day after stitches were removed. Oops...got the incision wet and the skin got saturated and the incision seperated. The steristrips the doc applied came off and so I put it together with bandaids.











So here is the ugliness of my hand...the day after stitches removed, and then two days after. It is improving slightly. ( :




Picture 2. Two days after stitches came out...the skin on either side of the incision is soft and gooey. I have to keep a band aid on it at all times. I highly recommend Nexcare bandaids. They make a near-water-tight seal all around the affected area and are very flexible. Mostly this isn't painful except when I bump my hand right on the incision area. Ouch!